"While you are trying to colonize Mars, Russia is trying to occupy Ukraine," Ukraine's Digital Minister Mykhailo Fedorov wrote in a public message to Elon Musk on Twitter.

On Saturday, he asked the Tesla boss to support beleaguered Ukraine with his Starlink satellite network.

On the same day, Musk replied on Twitter that Starlink services could now be used in Ukraine and that more hardware was on the way.

Michael Spehr

Editor in the "Technology and Engine" department.

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The internet in Ukraine has been severely compromised since the beginning of the Russian invasion.

Network connections are interrupted, data centers are damaged.

Such disruptions prevent citizens from obtaining information via the Internet.

This is where Elon Musk's satellite network is supposed to step in, provided the people of Ukraine are willing and able to pay for and install something like that.

Starlink currently has around 1,800 satellites in space and tens of thousands more in the pipeline.

The celestial bodies fly in a low earth orbit at an altitude of 550 kilometers and allow a maximum download speed of 150 megabits per second, which is faster than some DSL.

Due to the low flight altitude, the latency – the delay in the signal due to the distance – is significantly lower than with the geostationary Eutelsat satellites flying at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers, for example.

But the problem with Musk's low-flying aircraft is that they are not in a fixed position in space, but are moving at a speed of more than 28,000 kilometers.

They cross Germany at this rate in one minute.

Contact with a satellite lasts one to two minutes, then the connection to the next has to be established.

Jerks and dropouts can still often be observed at the moment.

The satellites communicate with each other by laser at the speed of light.

An Internet connection with Starlink currently costs $100 a month and the satellite antenna, including a tripod and W-Lan router, costs a further $500 once.

However, the price of the bowl is subsidized.

It costs the Starlink company Space X around $3,000 to produce.

Starlink Premium is coming out this week, which is said to have faster download speeds and requires a new $2,500 antenna.

Experts have criticized the large number of satellites in low-Earth orbit.

They could disrupt space travel, and when satellites collide with each other or with space debris, thousands of small parts are created that endanger space projects.

Other satellite Internet providers include Eutelsat and Sky DSL.

The offers are cheaper than Starlink, but the data speed is lower and the usable data volume is sometimes limited.

Jeff Bezos and others are also relying on small satellites in space to improve Internet coverage on earth.